please please please help me english and literature experts!?

Question

Hi I really need to know what this poem means because i dont understand it - please help me!

Break, break, break
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.

its a poem called break break break and its by lord alfred tennyson
thanks

Answer 1

The first stanza refers to the ocean and the narrator's desire to express the feelings that it evokes in him.

The second stanza is a reflection on how the author has a sort of jealously for the people around him that express themselves like he cannot. The boy is very alive and the sailor is young and adventurous.

The third stanza laments the ships who wait in harbor. They are protected ("haven") but they long for someone to come sail them and use them. But the hands and voices of these people are gone now ("vanished hand", "voice that is still".) This also reflects the narrator's feeling of being trapped because boats can't express themselves either.

The last stanza returns again to the subject of the ocean, something that is central to everything in this poem. The use of words like "cold grey stones" in the first stanza and "crags" in the last one reinforce the dreary tone of the work. These images intensify the sorrow expressed by the narrator. In the last stanza the narrator leaves us with the last sad statement that the days when he was alive an expressive (like the boy and the sailor) are "dead" and now he is like the ships waiting in the harbor -- alone, unused, and wishing for days gone by.

Answer 2

This is just an opinion, but I think the poet has lost most of his ability to be happy, or at least carefree. The fisherman's children are playing and the sailor is singing, but perhaps the poet doesn't play or sing any longer because he has a greater understanding of how much pain, frustration, disappointment, and sadness are in the world, or possibly his own life.

Maybe part of the reason the sea is in the poem (and not a river, a lake, or the rain) is that the sea is mainly salt water, much like the tears the poet has shed.

I'm sorry to depress everyone. Try to have a nice day anyway.

Answer 3

In the Bible, the sea represents wicked people who toss over everything. Type in "sea" on www.ibs.org and see what you find.

One of the symptoms of hyperlexia is not being able to start up a conversation on your own interests. Hypnotism increases the possibility of slight changes in the left hemisphere causing catalepsy, beginning in the right arm. The left hemisphere is conceived to be that which houses language and logic. Logic doesn't actually mean proving that something makes sense. It is the study of what makes things make sense. Therefore, the logic in this poem might be along the lines of analysis according to my understanding of mythology theory, as I'm doing. Or it might be familiarity to those readers who have experienced something like this. Or it might be the efficacy of the rhythm and sound patterns in the poem. (I just made up what I think applied logic is.)

It seems to be a poem about male domination. Males seem to think that playing means loudly making decisions on behalf of everybody. Ships can represent friendships/relationships (look up Aristotle/Plato/Socrates etc. - one of them spoke about this). The stately ships have a haven because of their grandeur. However, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

The reference to hands seems like the English language translation of the Bible's use of "cheir" to designated literal hands. The English language Bible uses "lay one's hands" to describe healings, whereas the words here (epitithemi and cheir) have a range of meaning from "to put or lay upon, to add to" in the active voice and "by the help or agency of any one, by means of any one." The English language translators have chosen to literalise "cheir." Then again, the voice that is still could be conflated, for the writer, with the originator of the voice. It could mean that the speaker has no agenda other than enjoying speaking. Mythology does tend to conflate the will and the word and exalt the power of the word to determine how people are supposed to perceive "reality." This is because mythology is there to preserve the guilty. There is a contrast, then, between "touching" with a hand, as in this poem, and "adding to" with a literalised hand. This is similar to the way that the Bible says that Mary said she had never known or perceived a man (or people in general) whereas the Koran says that she proclaimed that a man had never "touched" her. In the Bible account, Mary is actually responding to the suggestion that her son would become the King of Israel. I doubt that this story is correct either. I think that the writer has put in a little false modesty here. Everybody knows the those with small beginnings can become great, and not just through knowing the right people. I think that the Jewish Mafia wrote or rewrote the gospels.

People really do seem to think that touching people with hands makes all the difference. I think it makes all the difference to those who don't realise that they are victims and that they are continuing to play out the role. It's actually rude to gratuitously touch people. I know they do it a lot in church, but I think that this proves my point. Therefore, maybe Lord Tennyson wants a nice safe church experience to help him through his "being all washed up".

Answer 4

he is seeking peace and serenity. he is reminiscing about a day that is gone. he remembers how things used to be. He explains how life goes on, and the world keeps moving but he is stuck in his memories...